NASCAR's making moves, one of which is helping Germany's DTM series make the giant move to the U.S. The German touring car promoter ITM is in talks to run a 12-race calendar in the U.S. in 2013, with six races alongside Grand-Am events and another six alongside NASCAR events. The next generation of DTM cars will bow a year earlier, and they would run by themselves as opposed to joining a multi-regulation series in the U.S. The plan will certainly be welcomed by BMW, who will return to DTM in 2012 after an 18-year absence.

DTM is also spreading its wings the other way, having come close to getting Japan's GT500 class in SuperGT to run according to DTM technical regulations. That would put contenders like the Honda HSV-10 and a potential LFA racer, as well as the Ferrari, Mercedes and Lamborghini teams already there, against the best of the rest from Germany. And that would be a series we'd really need to have...

It's official, Grand-Am and NASCAR will partner to bring a 12 race, U.S. based Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM) series to the states starting in 2013. The decision to pair the DTM series with Grand-Am and NASCAR makes more sense than you might think. NASCAR events draw huge crowds and the potential overlap would mean additional promotion for both the DTM series and NASCAR.

Now the real question: where will the new series find its drivers? Well, according to our sources, the U.S. based DTM series (which will consist of all three major German automakers: Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW) will be made up of 'satellite' teams supported by the German operations. That said, there are possibilities however for American drivers to get into DTM cars, with both NASCAR and Grand-Am racers being taken into consideration.